Should We Turn Back – Chapter 59

Akhier

Ace claps his hands, “Well I think we can move on now!”

Tess shakes her head and laughs, “not before we harvest our rewards. You talked about them tasting like chicken. But going by the size of that drumstick, I think they might be more like those novelty turkey legs you get at a ren faire.”

Jeremy has for the most part ignored the others once he was certain Ace was fine and had gone down to check on the next room. Seeing that the others are as ready as they could be expected to be, he calls down to them. “It looks like we have a repeat. More goats and I would bet my last dollar on there being a hidden kobold goatherd.”

Bill blows a raspberry at this. “As if your dollar has any worth. Even if the government still exists out there their money isn’t good anymore. The paper they print it on is nice and I am sure someone will bleach them to make talismans. But the gov can’t promise value anymore. I am sure there are a thousand and one ways to counterfeit them now. Even if they try to add on magical security features, our world is a baby. Just one drop of alien knowledge can invalidate all their attempts. Only the system’s money has any worth beyond the material used.”

Jeremy shrugs, “well a man has to try. Now let’s go beat up some goats. Though I can see a few lizards in there so Ruby, try and fry them before we enter. If they die like the rabbits we get an answer and another type of meat.”

Ruby laughs at this and walks over. One glance in to pinpoint them and she sends out a handful of sparks. It hit only one of the lizards, but the critter dies right away. Relieved that the lizards aren’t some kind of hidden monster, everyone else charges in to meet the goat's head on.

This time Ruby holds off on attacking the kobold so as to not draw aggro, but besides that things go in a similar direction. If anything, it ends even quicker as Jeremy already knows to target the kobold. Then the room after is even easier. While there are more of the axebeaks they already have a strategy, just send Jeremy in alone.

The birds charge at him, but with his training he easily dodges them. Six thuds against the wall behind him and the fight is over. The rest of the group can only shake their heads while Jeremy sighs, “I hope the dungeon does something about this. An easy fight is nice, but this is just silly. Now let’s take a look-see at what we have next.”

As a group, they saunter down to the hallway's exit and take a look at what is to come. When they do get a look though they all freeze up. Jack as he is wont to do breaks the silences. “So that’s a sizable size of a room.”

Ace can only nod while Ruby laughs at it. Tess on the other hand holds her staff up and uses it to visually measure what she can see. She shakes her head, “about four times the size of the largest square rooms so far and the ceiling is five stories up. Though it looks like the dungeon needs that space for its ramps. Oh, and more birds, because of course there are.”

Jeremy shrugs, “size doesn’t bother me unless we are talking continental scale. What worries me is I can spot a few kobolds peaking over the boulders up there. More important though, I can see two olive trees. That is twice the first floor and will help quite a bit with our cooking supplies. There might even be enough left over after we run this a few times to use with magic research.”

Ace rubs the bridge of his nose, “I can’t predict what those kobolds will do. Jeremy can bait the birds before we enter and then I guess we play it by ear. If they don’t have any sort of ranged weapon all the better. We can only hope that the dungeon hasn’t loaded this room down with mages.”

Jeremy nods, “that would be bad. Especially as I am going out there first.” And he gives a crooked smile before stepping through the short connecting tunnel into the new room.

Predictably, the axebeaks charge at him. What they didn’t predict is that without the speed boost from the carvings, these birds don’t slam into the back wall as hard. The two are only stunned instead of dead. However this doesn’t help them as the rest of the group is already filing into the room and easily dispatch them before they can recover.

At that point a rain of rocks clatter around Jeremy as he twists in place. One particular rock passing just a finger’s width away from his forehead. He glances up towards the top of the ramps and sighs. “Well, I guess we know the answer to what kind of ranged ability they have. Let’s get a move on. I don’t like the idea of just sitting here being target practice. That and I don’t think the rest of you have quite the experience in dodging as I do.”

The others agree with this and so they rush up the ramp only to be greeted by another set of charging birds as they round the first olive tree. Tess is the first to react as she dives forward out of the way of one while thrusting out her staff to trip the other bird. This works and the second bird breaks its neck after a high speed fall.

The first doesn’t get off any better as Ace is ready for it this time. With his arm injured he most definitely can’t block them, so instead slides to the side and casts his vine field again. This time though, the vines don’t try to grapple the enemy and instead focus on tripping it up. Another broken neck later and the group continues on towards the first three kobolds. All of which are wielding clubs while only the middle one has a sling.

This advance on them though isn’t free of trouble. The kobolds at the top of the last ramp section continue to rain stones down on them. Jeremy dodges them easily enough while the rest of the team just have to deal with it in their own way. Jack even gets knocked in the head before he can engage the nearest kobolds.

A good thing the team doesn’t need him to deal with three kobolds as the blow leaves him a bit dazed. The fight is harder for it, but Jeremy is able to get a knife into one of the kobolds and the others fall soon after. This just leaves the last six kobolds as the group once again has to advance up a ramp. They are all in good shape but this constant hustle up slopes is wearing them down.

Facing six kobolds at once, all of whom now have their clubs out, proves to be more difficult than the first floor yet in the end a lot quicker. Without a mage to hold down Ruby, she stands back and rains fiery death onto them. Though the fight doesn’t end before Jack takes another hit, this time to his arm. The same arm that had been banged up on the first floor.

As the last kobold falls the others can see that he doesn’t have full use of the arm anymore. Ace shuts his eyes and sighs, “should we turn back now? I’m dangerously hurt and Jack has lost a good bit of his combat effectiveness.”

Everyone else shuffles around a bit before Jeremy shrugs, “we should at least take a look at what we might be missing. Through that opening I can see a lot of green and it isn’t just clover.”

The others have nothing to say about this so they all trudge up the last bit of ramp and look through the opening. Bill shakes his head at the sight as Ruby whistles. All they can see is a forest. Sure to the right there is a stone wall, but that could easily be mistaken for a cliff like the one they see two-thirds of the way back.

Ace sighs, “well, that changes things. With a forest we won’t have to worry too much about ranged attacks. Though it might hold you back, Ruby. We can’t exactly have you burning the dungeon down around us.”

She tears her eyes away from the scene and turns to Ace. “I shouldn’t be a problem. While my magic burns, the effect seems quite localized. You might not have noticed but despite leaving burn marks nothing actually catches fire. As far as Kelly can tell, part of what makes my fire ribbons work and why they are ribbons has to deal with how the heat is being contained. Now if I was tossing around the classic fireball, we would be in trouble. As long as I don’t stretch out a stream of fire big enough that I can’t fully control it things will be fine.”

Jeremy interrupts at this pause and points towards the top of the cliff, “no fire when we go up there. I know you say it won’t burn but I see a number of herbs and I think even some wheat. That upper area has more herbs than the rest of this floor. Now I know we aren’t ready to charge in right away, but we wouldn’t be doing that anyway. I have to go and harvest those two olive trees. Now I did bring some lightweight equipment to help with that which is why we finished up on the first floor so quickly but it still takes time. How about you all rest up while I go harvesting?”

Ace starts to shake his head but stops. “You know what? I don’t have to decide right now. You can harvest those olives and only after that do we need to make a choice. Once you’re done if even a single on of you doesn’t feel up for it we leave. Don’t prop yourself up with misplaced bravado. We could all die if you lie about being able to continue. I’m looking at you, Jack. You have suffered a good bit.”

Jack scoffs and looks pointedly at Ace’s shoulder, but he waves it off. “Yes my arm is out of commission but that doesn’t really matter. While I am somewhat more melee than mage, I am still a magic user. Vine fields will be even more effective in there as they can pop out of the trees as well as the ground. Probably about the only place the spell would be more effective would be the vine room, but I didn’t really need it for that fight. Now everyone rest up. I do want to complete the dungeon but our health and lives are more important!”

Not quite half an hour later, Jeremy finishes his harvesting. Quite quick for not having specialized tools but being strong enough to shake the olives off by hand goes a long way. After he picks up the last few from the ground, he walks back up to the rest of the group and glances at each with an inquisitive look.

Ace taps the flexible amber and shrugs. “The spell is holding so I am fine to go on.”

Ruby and Tess both shrugs as neither of them had been hurt.

Bill rolls his head back and rotates his shoulders forward. His run in with the assassin vine would probably leave him with bruises, but otherwise he was fine. A little tired from what seemed like a constant uphill battle, but that is to be expected.

Finally Jack shakes himself. His arm still hurts, but after the rest he can move it without hindrance. He sighs, “should be fine. Also, I plotted this all out in my head and I am going to guess this is the last room. This floor is a bit bigger than the last but with how long it is across a side there shouldn’t be much more.”

Ace glares at him, “are you sure you’re fine?”

Jack sighs, “of course I’m not fine. My arm hurts like crazy. The actual question you wanted to ask is can I finish this and my answer is the same as yours. If you can be up for a fight with that gash then a little pain won’t stop me.”

Ace shakes his head, “the situation is a little different, but fine. We can explore the last room.”

Akhier

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